Teacher story by: Charlie Clark, Mariëlle van der Peet, Rawi Ramautar

“With advance practice, the students experiment more freely, leading to more lab success”

Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research; Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences; Bioanalysis of Drugs

The challenge

With a rapidly growing course and limited lab instrumentation, we needed to adapt our analytical chemistry practical. Our goal: provide interactive learning, experiment design freedom, and in-depth feedback, so every student masters the content before entering the lab.

The transformation

We created a LabBuddy environment where students design sample preparation workflows in advance. They test solvents, stationary phases, and chemical combinations virtually, reinforcing lecture content and maximizing lab efficiency by arriving prepared and confident.

The final result

Students still choose diverse extraction methods, proving there’s no single “right answer.” With advance practice, they are more creative in the methods they try and achieve greater success in the actual experiments in the lab.